This is almost unreal the amount of people who have their first chapter and even most of their novel finished! I'm still slowly fleshing out my first chapter before I start thinking about building the rest of the novel!

~Ruth~

When Jesus said, "It is Finished!" what He really said was, "PAID IN FULL!"

I wrote mine, then lost it, found parts of it and tried rewriting it, only to lose in a fire, salvaged some and rewrote the rest, and every time I rewrote the silly thing it changed. Don't stress over it Ruth, if it is meant to be written it wil get there. Whether it is the story you started with or not... thats the big question.

I have another question, Deb! How much outside help can I get to help make sure I catch the errors before submitting my page turner? I want to make sure that I catch a good bit of stuff, but I'm not the best editor in the world.

~Ruth~

When Jesus said, "It is Finished!" what He really said was, "PAID IN FULL!"

I will definitely keep working on my submission manuscript, but I am feeling that the first chapter just doesn't have that zing that shorter works can have. It is really setting up the rest of the novel and developing some important characters. Most of the action comes much later in the book, but I will see what I can do to zing it up a notch

I've written quite a few novels for my own enjoyment, but most of them wouldn't work for this, for one reason or another. Some of the best of them are part of a rather lengthy, interconnected series. Others aren't strictly "Christian," in the sense that a "Christian novel" would be (though they're the sort of secular novels that a Christian would read, if that makes sense!).

If I had to choose an existing work to enter, it would be one of two:

1) A work connected to a much longer series, but which is independent enough to be read and understood apart from the series, and would probably work for the Christian market.

2) A work-in-progress that is completely separate from any series, and is much more of a standard "Christian novel," probably, than anything else that I've tried to write.

Right now, I think both of them have first chapters lacking the "zing" that the previous post describes so well. It would probably be impossible to do anything about that for (1), given the structure of the book. I might be able to do something about it for (2) by beginning the novel with a dramatic flashback. Of the two, I think (1) is the better work overall, but it's also somewhat gentle and undramatic. I think (2) has the potential to be much more dramatic, but right now it probably isn't as strong a work.

I might be able to come up with a third idea... but in that case, I would just concentrate on writing a strong first chapter and synopsis, and not write beyond that unless I won.

I hope all of that makes at least a little sense! I apologize for rambling so much... but any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated!

Duh! I don't know where I have been that I didn't realize what this Page Turner thing was all about. However, now that I clued in (thanks to Joanne) I am going to throw caution to the wind and try this out.

I have two novels in the works that have been gathering dust for several years. Perhaps this "push" will finally get one of them past my desk.

lyndaschultz wrote:Duh! I don't know where I have been that I didn't realize what this Page Turner thing was all about. However, now that I clued in (thanks to Joanne) I am going to throw caution to the wind and try this out.

Just lifted a rock, and there you were! No wonder you didn't know about it.

Glad Joanne explained it to you. By the way, are you getting all your FW newsletters (and 500 ones)?